Family

Again, I had planned to write a couple of posts here, but real life got in the way. First, we had a really bad storm go through our area on Monday. The tornado was about twelve miles from our house, but there were really scary winds that blew things around and moved my chairs around on the front porch. In other areas of Georgia, there was huge hail. Our electricity was off for almost twenty four hours from that storm, so I wasn’t able to get online that day.Also, I was sitting up in my adjustable bed that afternoon when the power went off, so we couldn’t get the bed to go down! The next day we got batteries for the emergency battery box that goes with the bed, so we would be prepared next time.

Then, my sister called me to tell me that she was taking my mother to the hospital. Well, she was following the ambulance to the hospital. Mama has been having “dizzy spells” for a couple of years. When they happen, she is not able to stand up, and she feels nauseous. When she got to the hospital, her blood pressure was 213/190! This time, the doctor ordered an MRA, which is different from an MRI . I didn’t know what the difference was so I googled it. A Magnetic Resonance Angiography looks for blocked arteries in the neck,or Carotid Artery Disease. The test results showed a couple of blockages. Because of her age, they opted not to operate on her. They will treat it with baby aspirin for the time being.

I spent yesterday sitting with Mama at the hospital. It was easy enough, to just sit there, and talk to her, and fetch water or whatever else she needed. I wasn’t much more help than that, but I did keep her company, which I know from experience is very important when you are hospitalized.

Today, I had a doctor appointment of my own, with the general practitioner. She renewed my prescription for pain meds, and gave me a form to take to the tag office to get a handicap parking hang tag for the car. Just having that hang tag will make my life a little bit easier. It was really quite easy to get the handicap hang tag. When I asked the doctor about it, she said she had to fill out a form, and have someone in her office notarize it. Then I just had to take the form to the county tag office. If my name was on the title to the car, I could get a permanent tag, but because the car is titled in Fabgrandpa’s name, I had to get the hang tag. The hang tag has an expiration date and has my name on it, so I can use it in any car in which I am a passenger.I got the form when I was at the doctor’s office, and went to the tag office the same day and picked up my hang tag. It was free.

You don’t think about how far it is to walk to get into a store until you are in pain every waking moment of your life. Now that I can park in the handicap parking spaces, it will help me from getting worn out just walking in somewhere.

There you have it: my week in a nutshell. I am hoping next week will be a bit more relaxed and I can rest a bit and get caught up on things online and off.

We decided to go out to dinner with family for Fabgrandpa’s birthday. We had an excellent meal at Red Lobster with about 18 or so members of the extended family. It was so much fun to see everyone! Pictured above with Fabgrandpa is our son-in-law Rafe, daughter Becky, and daughter Emily.

He slept for the first half of the get together, but then he woke up when the food arrived at the table. Don’t they always?

That’s our other son-in-law, Thomas sitting next to me. Fabgrandpa’s brother and sister-in-law Mike and Jody, and their two daughters and two granddaugters down the way.

I got a great pic of Becky and Rafe.

Mike and Jody looked good. We haven’t seen them in almost a year. We  don’t see them enough.

Another couple we don’t see often enough. My sister Linda and her husband Alan. I’m glad they could make it today.

Stella, Mike and Jody’s granddaughter. She is a cutie pie!

Mike and Jody’s other granddaughter, Kyleigh. She is a beautiful girl, too.

Spencer, my grandson. He is way too busy for me to take his picture.

Then Parker woke up, had a change and a bottle, and was passed around the table. Everyone wanted to hold his little self.

Nope, not my turn yet! Great Aunt Linda holding Parker.

He looks soooo comfy with Aunt Becky. Snoozing again.

He is growing so fast! He’s already about eleven pounds. I love the smell of a new baby!

And then when it was time to go, Parker was back with Daddy. Big Brother Spencer is a good helper.

The party was over way too soon. We talked and laughed and hugged and hugged some more. We all had a good time, and plan to do it again soon. Happy Birthdy, Fabgrandpa. Yes, I’ll still need you, yes I’ll still feed you, now that you are 64.